Aplmac

I am curious about the differences between the Atlantic and Pacific Dining Rooms on the Victory. ===> Not much

On past cruises on other ships I have always dined in the aft dining room,

but wonder if I may be missing something in the midship dining room. ===> Less ship motion?

 

Are they both two story and have the nice staircase at the entrance?

Can you see outside from both? ===> Yes.

Do you past cruisers have any preference?

here are some pics of the midships Atlantic DR, taken in Apr. 09

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Aplmac! I'm down to 3 days to departure!!!

I just want to confirm my watertaxi stops in St. Maarten....

 

What stops do we stop at for Segway (the guys will segway while we shop)? ===> I have no idea.

Guavaberry? Camera Shop? ===> try the 1st. stop, like we did!

 

How's your weather been? ===> Not rainy yet -but give it another month or so!

My husband tells me that when I see "showers" that it is normal

and that it just means that there might be a quick shower during the day. ===> He's right. He always is. :cool:

 

My daughter is here and has asked me to ask you if you have any other shops

that you really like that we shouldn't miss!? ===> Yeahh...the whole of Front Street! :D

 

(She's on the lookout for a lesser expensive necklace... her own money

so probably something more local/touristy). ===> She'll find it..all over!

We got off the water taxi at its first stop..

..found Front Street at its very Eastern end quite quickly (to your left)

- soon discovered Blanc du Nil shop with classy stuff all in white..

and then the Guavaberry place soon after that.

Continuing Westward along Front St.

I soon found Boolchand's camera store -my real destination.

Just keep wandering!

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Kiddo's necklace shouldn't be a problem.

In fact almost as soon as we were off the water taxi,

and even before we found Front St.

there was a small collection of curio shops,on our right

that are keeping her two necklaces for her.

Over the course of the day she will of course be tempted to buy two or three..

so she may want to take oooh...fifteen to twenty thousand dollars with her? :D

but don't spend it all in one place okay? :cool:

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Took over 40 minutes

but this was the most interesting thread I've ever had the pleasure to read..

...photo classes and how/where/what to purchase thrown in for FREE..

...plus all those lovely pics......have much of the info stored for future use........

 

Thanks again for all of you for the pics which made the text go a long way

- enjoyed every minute of it and will be checking back to see what's new......:)

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You've probably seen this already but here it is again

We were in the taxi coming back from Marigot

came upon this incredibly turquoise scene, while on the move

and I'm playing with my new fisheye lens

You're looking at Carnival Liberty and Victory in Port

with a Princess ship in the background somewhere

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I think getting there early is the key!!!

Getting there early is the right move, so have breakfast early and get off that ship! ;)

On our way up there it wasn't too bad.

Like I said earlier, Alvin suddenly stopped the van just before a bend in the road

pulled up the hand-brake, got out and walked ahead for a peek around said corner.

What's he up to? we all thought..

Afterwards, we realized he as checking to see who/what was coming back down

and when he could make Our Move.

Wasn't too bad getting in.

In an hour's time though...on our way back down

Whoooaaa! it was clear just how crowded the whole situation had become!

The vans were backed up literally for about a quarter-mile down the narrow road

and we were thanking our lucky stars -and Alvin- that we were on the early side of things.

It was our trip back down from Trafalgar that was hairy-scary

passing the other vans only by both drivers folding in their wing-mirrors :eek:

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..are quite colorful! :D

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We've been twice and it wasn't too bad.

When we were there there were three ships in, that day.

Makes a big difference!

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We did Best Tour with Levi. It was cut short due to traffic tie up at Falls.

We waited about an hr. to even get up the hill. ===> Ridiculous!

So only 20 mins. for snorkeling at Reef -and no Mr. Nice fruit stand.

know that the road to Trafalgar Falls is going to be jam-packed with tour-vans!

As these folks discovered, it wasted a precious hour of their limited time ashore

-not to mention the severe overcrowding on that skinny lil mountain road that curled even my hair

...and I live and drive all the time in these islands! ;)

Wife and I have resolved to never do Trafalgar again.

OK maybe maybe if there's just the one ship(ours) in, that day. Maybe...

Trafalgar's a nice enough spot when you get there, great falls..

but it's the Getting There that is more-often-than-not..arduous!

I'm real sorry now that I didn't take more pics of the traffic situation.

The only one I have is this, which shows a very small portion of the goings-on!

This is the car park at the Falls terminal. This is the sane bit! :D

There's dozens more vans parked down the narrow winding road, waiting to get up.

I now realize we were fortunate to get there early

..we only waited maybe 5 mins. if that.. at the very last bend

just before the car park you see here !

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If someone had a pic of the craps table... I would make that my avatar. :D

The best I kin do for you is...

_______ and _______

..whatever these things are?

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Well, that answers that!

My sister is traveling with me to the Mex Riviera next Feb.

She's a bit older and has knee replacements and not very good balance.

We've thought about taking a sailing excursion but she was worried about the transfer to the tender

-- and then again to the sailboat.

I think after reading all these posts that maybe it's not a great idea.

The ship is in Cabo for only several hours so she may just want to stay on the ship.

You should stay on the ship. ;)

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Don't think you guys saw my fish yet...

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-on the horizon

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Speaking of Aplmac, Where has he been? Maybe cruising!

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How soon til we see these in use?

These are thought to be the next generation of Carnival card,

dreamed up as an improvement over the current ones

which were judged to be unfit for human consumption, by those of Platinum status

..who felt their Platinum color didn't show sufficiently impressively

Some clever artistic person came up with this suggested rethink for the current design

which was judged to be a great improvement! :)

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The monkeys look so cute, but do the monkeys ever get to be a problem for you?

Local farmers can have problems with them in Dry Season

when they're seeking moisture content from anything they can get their little hands on

(no puddles around to drink from

and local bars and shops don't accept monkey credit-cards,sorry).. :D

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Someone lied to you. Belize is most certainly not a "3rd world" country.

That phrase seems to get used to describe anywhere that poor people are in evidence.

The whole thing started back in the days of Cold War detente...

Capitalism vs. USSR "communism"...think mid-20th. Century!

The First World was the great white Western NATO bloc countries

i.e. USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France, you know the rest.

The Second World was the entire Soviet bloc

- those who found themselves trapped behind The Iron Curtain.

The Third World was everyone else

who wasn't either First World or Soviet bloc "Second World"

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There was a little float-plane making regular half-hour trips in and out..

from the bottom end of the bay, here(at right)

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Love all of your photo's especially the monkeys in your back garden.

Will they let you hand feed them fruit? ===> no no..

Or will they not let you get that close? ===> Oh no!

Although my daughter once lived in an area where the young ones were tame enough for that.

One afternoon we were in the living room looking at Rebecca's science project

and when we looked back for some reason there was Joey the young monkey

also checking her science project -right there in the living room!

So it does happen, but only on rare occasion!

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Close up of water taxi sign.

Many thanks! ;)

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Crew only deck on the Mercury:

freezer lockers, grunge disposal rooms, crew-only companionways

- and everything else ever shown on this somewhat mundane thread!

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Well done, Gail!

Thank you so much. ;)

So handy to have answers addressed in pictorial fashion like this..

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Pinel Island....just a 5 minute ferry ride from St. Maarten, and you can see Orient Beach from there!

Ferry was $6 each (RT) I think....well worth the money!

 

tell so much, and give much information.

Please post more shots like this, of rate-boards everywhere -on all islands.

It really helps us CC people know what to pay.

Thank you.

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I'm sorry now I didn't think to do a close-up of this one

at the St.Maarten water taxi entrance.

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I thought that dial up was a thing of the past. ===> It is but..

Thank you for your pics man. Keep them coming please. ===> U're very welcome!

Nice lens. ===> Don't U know it! ;)

I come over to your house --and a few small businesses-- sort out your Registry...stuff like that.

I have found that dial-up users can often see noticeable increase in speed from Uurghhh to Not-Bad!

by simply hauling out their old dialup modem card

and replacing it with a newer one, of more modern technology! ;)

Local cost is around Bds.$20-25 (= US$ 10-13!) and away we go!

Moral of the story:

If you're still croaking along with abyssmaly-slow dialup service where you are

it may not be your ISP, it may be your 4-yr.old-technology MODEM CARD.

They're not difficult or expensive to replace, and if I were stuck with dialup for some reason(some are!)..

I'd simply replace mine every 12-18 months routinely to take advantage of not just brand-new components

but improved technology, per installation!

Try it.

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As an example of how technology changes stuff..

here's what 1 Gigabyte of storage looked like, some years/decades ago

compared with what it looked like 1-2 years ago (the SD card in hand at top right)

--and it's probably way smaller today in 2009.5

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We were standing in the hallway saying good night to each other, prior to retiring to our individual cabins

when my friend pops open a panel right there...

 

 

to find this --'blackwater' plumbing attached to our bathrooms!

Isn't that just beautiful? :D.

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I forgot to add the sister shot, taken at the same time

I just stuck the camera inside the space, pointed it upwards

popped the trigger, shooting blind --this is what came back

-more blackwater and silver-lagged piping.. to and from the cabin above ours

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